Alexei Mordashov is the 83pc shareholder and chief executive of Severstal,
Russia’s second-largest steel group, and is one of Russia’s richest men.
Just don’t call him an oligarch.

Alexei Mordashov is the 83pc shareholder and chief executive of Severstal, Russia’s second-largest steel group, and is one of Russia’s richest men. Just don’t call him an oligarch.

“Some people call me that but I would prefer to think of myself as a big entrepreneur and industrialist. If I have to be famous, I would prefer to be famous for that,” he has said.

“Building companies involves creating great wealth. If that means I am an oligarch, OK, it’s fine. But if being an oligarch is about buying football clubs, it is not for me.”

Mr Mordashov was born to steel-mill worker parents in 1965 and grew up in Cherepovets in the late Soviet glasnost era. He tells how his family had coupons for food in his youth and was only allowed 400g of sausages and 200g of butter each month.

The businessman has shunned the cliched oligarch trappings, although Severstal does have substantial Russian sporting interests. It owns the ice hockey team in Cherepovets, 500km north of Moscow, and sponsors the Dynamo Moscow women’s volleyball side and the Russian national male chess team, as well as numerous sports facilities.

Of higher-profile oligarchs such as Chelsea-owner Roman Abramovich, Mr Mordashov has said: “I don’t have any opinions about Russians. There are celebrity persons in each country. Different people do different things. I personally never was involved in such activities and have no plans to do so. If others believe that it’s right for them to do, then fine. It’s up to them.”